More health care services coming to St. Vital

By: Nancy Allan, MLA for St. Vital

As published in The Lance

April 17, 2013

St. Vital is a diverse community of families, seniors, children and individuals with different needs and priorities. But the one thing that unites us all is our commitment
to a strong health care system.

That’s why I am excited to tell you that our ever-expanding community has been chosen as one of the sites for an ACCESS Centre, providing St. Vital residents with more
convenient and varied health care services closer to home.

An ACCESS Centre is a convenient one-stop community health and social services hub that includes primary-care clinics with doctors and nurse practitioners. This means more
convenient access to the health services families require such as home care, mental health treatment, dietitians, pharmacists, and more.

A person’s health is also influenced by a number of outside factors, so an ACCESS Centre also provides assistance for seniors and families with finding social workers, child
care, housing, and employment and income assistance.

After initial planning and development work, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) has issued a request for proposals to identify potential locations for three new
centres, not only in St. Vital but also in St. Boniface and Southwest Winnipeg.
The new centres will also be collaborating with other important community partners, including the Centre de santé Saint-Boniface/St. Boniface Health Centre and the Youville
Community Health Centre.

These three new centres are in addition to the three ACCESS centres that are already established in River East, Transcona and in the downtown, and two more are currently
under construction in St. James and Northwest Winnipeg.

In a recent announcement, my colleague Health Minister Theresa Oswald noted, "By building our infrastructure and adding new, accessible health facilities, we are increasing
capacity across the system by providing Manitoba families with the best, most convenient health care." A healthy Manitoba remains an essential priority for our government.